Traditionally, customers present a prescription for a drug or other medication to a pharmacy. Customers may be covered by a health care insurance company or other provider through an employer or other entity. At the point of sale, the customer pays a co-pay amount, if applicable, and receives the requested prescription. The pharmacy, on the other hand, may have to wait approximately 45 days or longer to receive payment for the prescription given to the customer.
Currently, employers who offer a prescription drug benefit program may incur large amounts of administration and other related costs. For example, numerous administrative entities may need to approve each stage of a payment process for a prescription. Patient and physician information may need to be verified before payment is rendered. Also, insurance providers may need to be consulted before finally completing the payment process. Generally, the prescription drug transaction is inefficient and requires a large amount of various administrative functions. Patients are generally addressed on an individual basis through individual accounts. Due to the large amount of processing and administrative functions, there may be greater opportunities for errors. As a result, payment to pharmacies and affiliated merchants may be delayed by days, weeks or even longer. In addition, insurance companies and/or other agents may charge numerous fees from the employer thereby contributing to the high costs of prescription drugs and other related services.
These and other drawbacks exist with current systems.